We have received several emails protesting the loss of the Learning Disabilities Behavour Disorders (LDBD) program at Seymour elementary school in Vancouver. Below is a letter to the editor published in today’s newspaper and below that is the Vancouver school district’s response.

Ann Sturrock of North Vancouver wrote:

I have been privileged to be a volunteer for 18 months at an inner-city school that has had a high profile on The Sun’s Adopt a School program.

I want to shine a light on a decision April 8 by the Vancouver school board to close a very successful program established in 1995*.

The Learning Disabilities Behaviour Disorders program which integrates vulnerable, fragile children into a positive environment will be no more at the end of June. This program has a waiting list. It is a model for success with its participants belonging to sports teams, clubs and being integrated into regular classrooms. It is the “heart” of the school.

The children will be uprooted from their school community and moved to new schools in an attempt to save money and centralize service. Two of the schools these children will go do not have breakfast or lunch programs while their current school does.

Two outstanding teachers will be lost to the school. One of 18 years service who is a renowned mentor to difficult children; the other, a recipient of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal for Service this year.

This action of the school board was taken without consultation with teaching staff or the parents. This would never be tolerated in west side schools. A society is judged by how it treats its most vulnerable. All of us should feel shame by standing by and letting this happen.

The district’s Kurt Heinrich replied:

First and foremost, the program isn’t being cut, just reimagined. From an educational/special ed perspective we are always striving to build consistency for student programming across the district. We want to have a system that provides direct, targeted interventions. That means we are creating a new program that incorporates the social/emotional/academic needs of kids using evidence based practices.

From an operational perspective, we reviewed our programs that were either slated for movement due to seismic/facility reasons, had low enrollment or were single instance programs. We identified three such programs (Seymour, Nelson and Beaconsfield) that we could change into our new social/emotional/academic development (SEAD) program.

One key consideration is that the new SEAD programs are more geographically equitable (not all Eastside), which we think will be appreciated by all of our district parent population.

Second, this decision had nothing to do with the budget process. No money is being saved, nor are any staff positions being lost (as the letter seemed to imply). There is actually only one teacher in the Seymour class and it is up to the teacher as to whether or not they want to stay with the school. Staying in the school is the first option available to the teacher.

Third, there is no district waitlist.

Fourth, we’ve put a great deal of thought into the plan for each learner who is currently in the district program class at Seymour including ensuring that food programs will be available to them in their new school. In this particular case, none of the students reside in the Seymour catchment area.

Fifth, the process in terms of moving these programs is the same as it has always been. The letter to the editor mentions that we wouldn’t do this to a Westside program. That’s not correct. In fact we are currently moving two classes in the Westside of the city according to the same process.

*The program was created by Carrie Gelson, whose compelling letter about her disadvantaged students prompted the Sun to create its successful Adopt-a-School program. Gelson emailed me last week about the loss of this program and the effect on the school community. “It’s been a very traumatic week at Seymour,” she wrote.

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